February Events For Myth Lovers
Bronzino’s An Allegory With Venus and Cupid is in the public domain.
Virtual Events
On February 1, join a discussion of Matt Baker’s Phantom Lady, an example of “good girl” comic art depicting women in provocative pin-up poses, in which the debutante daughter of a senator runs around in a yellow swim suit and green cape.
From February 1-4, learn about yogic mythology, the Hindu gods and goddesses, the yogic practices aligned to them, which yogic practices to practice with which moon phase, and more.
On February 5, learn about the archeology of tattoos and skin art.
On February 8, learn about a variant of the Jack and the Beanstalk story in which two sisters menstruated together and were swallowed by the Rainbow Snake.
On February 12, listen to a talk on The Hero’s Journey: Mythology, Storytelling and Recovery: What Hercules, Frodo Baggins, Clarice Starling, Peter Parker, Rocky Balboa, Katniss Everdeen, and the others teach about Recovery from Addiction (and from other trials and traumas).
On February 15, learn about a Plains Indian story called ‘The Wives of the Sun and Moon,” which tells of how human social structure initially alternated with the comings and goings of Sun and Moon – but eventually ‘got stuck’ in patriarchy. The myth tells of a heroine whose once-a-month periodic liaisons are replaced by a new patriarchal arrangement in which marriage is a permanent state.
On February 17, learn about how the Etruscans participated in a ritual with Greco-Roman roots that at first might seem to have replaced their established practices, but instead caused them to change the ritual so that it would be more meaningful to their experiences, which in turn gave them greater control than before in their personal relationship with the gods.
On February 17, learn about the mythology of missing aircraft in Alaska.
On February 17, 18, 0r 19, watch a live performance either online or in person at 86th Street and Amsterdam of Ayhan Hulagu's Dream of Hamlet.. The show uses classical Turkish shadow puppetry to bring a modernist approach to the Shakespearean play.
On February 19, you can participate in an oracle deck making workshop that will help you identify archetypes that resonate with you as spiritual guides, then create individualized oracle cards, and finally build a reference book to correlate with each.
On February 19, join a conversation detailing and discussing Black women's cultural and academic contributions to Afrofuturism, a cultural movement that explores concerns of the African disapora through speculative fiction (such as Octavia Butler’s).
Gustav Klimt’s painting The Kiss is in the public domain.
New York City Events
From February 1 through February 15, celebrate the Chinese New Year. (For example, leave crackers out for the rats on February 3, so they can get married and leave you alone the rest of the year. Pray to the god of wealth on the 4th. Clean on the 6th to please the god of bathrooms when he visits.)
On February 2, performance artist and magician Derek DelGaudio will discuss his latest book AMORALMAN: A True Story and Other Lies with the New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman.
On February 5, you can see John Dowling’s surreal and expressionistic digital composite images on exhibit at the Bohemian National Hall, which “are an attempt to control the focal points of the viewer, bending your imagination into uncontrollable shapes and distortions of reality.” The composites aim to capture “the psychological tendency in people to see what they want to see and not see what they don't want to see.”
On February 5, the Queens Botanical Garden will have a Lunar New Year Celebration that will include lion dance performances, a winter scavenger hunt, and stories about the Chinese Zodiac.
On February 8, share ghost stories over a fire pit at Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Brooklyn.
On February 10, the astrophysicist and storyteller Emily Levesque will talk about the astronomers who have braved everything — from exploding volcanoes to marauding squirrels to wild bears — in their efforts to understand what’s in the night sky.
On February 12, you can watch the dragons and firecrackers at the Chinese Lunar New Year Parade and Festival in Chinatown.
On February 12, watch a performance that mixes traditional and modern Chinese dance that includes lion dancers, elaborate costumes, and more.
On February 22, gather with NYC’s psychics, authors and tarotists for readings, craft cocktails, magical shopping, and paranormal fun both outside and inside at Barrow’s Intense Tasting Room in Brooklyn.
On February 26, learn about fairies at the Edith G. Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in Rye while constructing your own world involving these mystical beings. Fun for kids.
On February 26, April 9 and April 10, you can watch the winners of the Annual Queens Underground Black History Month Film Festival.
Anytime until April 18, you can see the Greater New York exhibit at PS1, which explores narratives around artists in New York, including how they record their experiences of belonging and estrangement though everything from documentary to surrealism.
All month through March 6, the Met has a special exhibition about Disney. Sixty works of 18th-century European decorative arts and design—from tapestries and furniture to Boulle clocks and Sèvres porcelain—will be featured alongside 150 production artworks and works on paper from Disney. The exhibit references European visual culture in Disney animated films, including nods to Gothic Revival architecture in Cinderella (1950), medieval influences on Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Rococo-inspired objects brought to life in Beauty and the Beast (1991).
Any day you want you can go to Beetle House, a restaurant that takes inspiration from Tim Burton, Alfred Hitchcock, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe and many more. The menu includes, Blood Bags, Hautned Lemonade, Bio-Exorcism’s, among other things. Dining in only, which adds a new COVID element to the scare show.
Check out the dragons, kings, pirate ships, Merlin’s flying machines and other spectacles at the new Legoland in Goshen, New York.
Get Butter Beer at the new Harry Potter-themed store and bar at 935 Broadway near the Flatiron Building.
Miss going to the movies? Watch a socially distanced one outside with your friends at Sidewalk Cinema on Thames Street in Brooklyn.
Check out the images of buddhas, bodhisattvas, tantric deities, protectors and more at the Rubin Museum’s Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room.
U.S. Events
"Myth.Slide1.16" by c.a.francese is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
From February 3-6, CapriCon will take place in Chicago. This year’s theme, “Rockin in the Outer Realms,” will explore how science fiction has influenced music ranging from David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars to Sun Ra’s Afrofuturistic album The Space Age Is Here To Stay.
From February 18-20, you can participate in the Boston-based science fiction convention Boskone, whose guests will include Ted Chiang and Tamsyn Muir.
World Events
On February 26-27, Armageddon, “a celebration of all things geek where fans of classic and current TV and movies, comics, games, cosplay and animation and more,” will take place in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand.
Recurring Virtual Events
Every year in the secret realm of Bunnyville, magical creatures from around the world gather for their annual summit. This is supposed to be a time to reconnect with old and new friends, but this year someone (or some creature!) has stolen the Easter Bunny’s magical golden egg! Kids and adults can both enjoy this enchanted game featuring creatures like fairies, dragons, mermaids, and of course the Easter Bunny!
If you would rather be in France right now, view a selection of thematically-themed works from the Louvre online, including the ones in the Sully Wing, which includes major works of Greek and Egyptian art such as the Venus de Milo.
Take an online course with Stanford research scholar Adrienne Mayor in which you will “uncover the natural origins of stories about dragons. . .; ponder whether the Amazon horsewomen-archers of myth existed; consider the dilemmas of using poison weapons in myth and ancient historical times; and marvel at robots and other science fiction tales from the time of Homer.” $120.
Take an online mini-course about Rome, seeing how it exists not only in brick and mortar, but also in the realm of ideas, and through the eyes of locals and visitors. Topics will include Rome’s urban and architectural development, as well as its representation in maps and artworks from across the city’s exceptionally long lifetime. $99.
The NY Mythology Group, which is associated with the Joseph Campbell Foundation, holds presentations and discussions about mythology related topics ranging from the Greek goddess Hecate to Carl Jung. Their events usually take place on Tuesday evenings at 8 pm EDT, and have been online since the pandemic started.
BSFW, or Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, meetings take place mostly online currently, but pre-pandemic were in the homes of writers mostly in Brooklyn but also on occasion Manhattan or Queens. Check out their calendar on meetup to attend their numerous writing workshops, social gatherings, meetings with editors/agents/authors, book clubs, and more. The group includes many published writers and has its own audio fiction magazine, Kaleidocast. If you post about your fetish for Olympian gods on their Facebook group feed, they (probably) won’t judge.
EREWHON BOOKS, a publisher focusing on novel-length works of speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, and related genres, holds readings usually on the second Thursday each month virtually for now and in a pre-apocalypse world at its high ceilinged office of many windows in Manhattan.
Fantastic Fiction at KGB is a monthly speculative-fiction reading series held on the third Wednesday of every month virtually for now, and in a pre-apocalypse world at KGB Bar in Manhattan. Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel host the event. As one might expect from a communism-themed bar, admission is free.
The NYC Greek Myth & Classical Lit Meetup meets every third Thursday of the month at the Cloister Cafe in the East Village to discuss the work of mostly long dead authors (e.g. Aristophanes, Dante.) The group has existed for more than a decade, so the long-term participants have already earned their unofficial classics PhD’s, and we already know that anybody who would do this for fun is as hip as a person can get.
Marcantonio Raimondi’s “A Bacchanal”. CC01.0 Public domain.
